Category: helping the earth


By Sriya Narayanan

From 1993 to 2020, Selvapandian R helped transform fading green spaces attached to temples across rural South India into the thriving sacred groves they once were and now are again. Over 27 years, the Environmental Education Officer at C. P. R. Environmental Education Centre (CPREEC) planted thousands of saplings, walked miles in the darkness of dawn to check on them, powered through injuries and fatigue, and built relationships with hundreds of hardworking villagers – from temple priests to bright-eyed schoolchildren – all of whom played a part in restoring the emerald-green cover that is protected with a ferocity worthy of its holy status. “The people who water the young saplings often take off their footwear before entering the area. I’ve visited groves where you aren’t even allowed to break off a twig,” says Selvapandian who was part of CPREEC’s mission to restore sacred groves in India, right from the program’s inception in 1993. The program sprouted from a meeting between prominent agronomist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan and Dr. Nanditha Krishna, founder of CPREEC.

The groves, which are under the jurisdiction of the country’s Forest Department, have also found their way into the school syllabus following approval in Parliament. Selvapandian brightens at the memory of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister conducting a meeting at one of these groves instead of in an auditorium. It was a news item he read after retirement in 2021, a rare occasion for him to sit back and marvel at the progress the project has made. “I was so happy that people (in the audience) were resting in the shade of trees we planted,” he says. “As long as we were working, when we visited any of these groves, we’d only remember the blood, sweat and tears. I mean literal blood – I once had a head injury that required stitches but I refused to take a leave of absence”.

Selvapandian’s team started small, by giving saplings to residents for planting as part of their rural eco development program. They also trained locals in the art of sustaining kitchen gardens and devised clever ways to advocate for the cause. “At the time we began, every village had perhaps 10 television sets if at all,” he says. “We would use a mobile video van that would intersperse our informative segments with film and music shows. There were times when we’d have a thousand people coming to watch, as late as 10 p.m.” Additionally, traditional forms of entertainment such as Koothu (dance drama) and Villu Pattu (musical storytelling) were used to build awareness for the initiative.

While it was hard work that took decades to perform, it was fortunately not a hard sell. Selvapandian observes that reverence of Nature is already culturally ingrained in the value system of Indians. He refers to the concept of Pancha Bhootam that accords divine status to the five natural elements, noting that careful management of soil and manure are also part of this belief, and that the wholehearted cooperation of villagers was key to the success of these groves. He reveals that while caretakers often watch over their plants like parents would, ruing even the tiniest sapling that looked like it was struggling, he says that even a small area with as few as 200 healthy trees must be considered a success. In the meantime, the availability of modern tools has given the restoration project a boost. While many groves in the program still require manual watering, drip irrigation is currently used in places such as Madurai and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.

A happy forest

Selvapandian who comes from a family of weavers and is the first in his household to work in the environment sector looks back on his strategy during his early years on the program – going to each place and learning from its people, drawing inspiration from them and working hand-in-hand with them. In contrast to the more commonly used strategy of metaphorically air-dropping saplings into barren spaces and hoping for the best, his team’s method requires significantly more time, energy and patience. Retired now after thirty years on the field, however, he has no hesitation when he declares softly, yet firmly, “I would rather do this kind of work than anything else”.

Photos:Sharon St Joan

© Copyright, Forest Voices of India, 2023

By Sriya Narayanan

Once a sparkling village bustling with biodiversity and economic activity, Nenmeli in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, had watched its green cover fade over the years.

The village lands deteriorated over time

A grueling water scarcity issue followed. Young residents were forced to migrate to cities to look for work and the elderly stayed behind. Over time, the hill and the land near the village became barren. “What was a hundred acres came down to two or three acres,” says Dr Sudhakar, Director, CPR Environmental Education Centre.

Dr Sudhakar with folk art

Dr Sudhakar, who has been coordinating efforts to restore groves such as these since 1993, explains that many villages in South India have a tradition of demarcating specific forests as divine, particularly those attached to temple land, in order to safeguard the wildlife and trees, while also ensuring the ecological balance of the area. “In fear and favor of God,” he says, adding that the religious attachment is far more than mere symbolism, but a way to protect a precious ecosystem by tying it into practices that eventually become a way of life.

Over many years, Mr. R. Selvapandian of CPREEC (now retired) directly managed the work on the sacred groves, spending many months or years on each site, overseeing all aspects of the restoration from start to finish.

Mr. Selvapandian and Dr. Nanditha Krishna

Restoring the forests

In general, when CPREEC restores sacred forests, (they have so far restored 53 sacred groves), they rely on accounts from the village elders to be able to replant exactly the same trees that were there previously. However, in the case of Nenmeli, there was no living memory of the very ancient forest and the tradition of worship from the past. The degradation of the forest that had taken place over time had left a barren, lifeless hillside, surrounded by acres of land that had also deteriorated. The village leaders asked CPREEC to restore the ancient land, as closely they could, to what must have been there in the past, so that it could once again be a place of great beauty, peace, and spiritual connection.

A protective deity

It is common for villages to have a ‘kaaval deivam’ (Tamil for protective deity) that safeguards the village, and conduct annual festivals to worship and celebrate the deity. The village people feel enormous respect for their sacred groves. In reality, taking care of these groves is also an act of self-preservation, for there is a ripple effect in the way it sustains human well-being.

Seeking recovery

When villagers from Nenmeli approached CPREEC’s Sacred Grove Restoration Project in 1995, they were looking to inject new life into the land that had become barren and give it a fighting chance at recovery. Dr Sudhakar and his team took on the responsibility and followed a standard process that involves carefully planned planting projects and a three-year maintenance program after which the management of the restored land is handed back to the villagers.

Trees of Nenmeli

He differentiates CPREEC’s planting efforts from similarly well-intentioned, but misguided attempts where corporate organizations might plant saplings without adequate thought to their future caretaking or the suitability of those species to the area. The Sacred Grove Restoration Project, in contrast, takes care to aim for and achieve a 90% survival rate for the newly planted vegetation, bringing it to a point where it is self-sufficient.

The whole village is involved

Another important feature of the Project is the wholehearted and spirited contribution of the village’s residents to the restoration. The locals were instrumental, for instance, in cultivating a flourishing herbal garden while the entire village community took avid interest in CPREEC’s extensive training program. “We raised awareness on soil conservation and the water table and took these educational materials to schools and colleges as well,” says Dr Sudhakar. He upholds Nenmeli as a model eco-village and reveals that the concerted effort included walling the hillock in the center of the grove in the form of check dams and trenches to prevent soil erosion and desilting the two water-tanks attached to it.

He’s delighted to describe how the well in the area soon saw more than eight feet of water during even the driest of summers and how an erstwhile four acres soon blossomed into 25 acres. His favorite observation, however, pertains to the wildlife that silently and eagerly crept back into the now-replenished grove. “Porcupines, snakes, hares, and rabbits… oh, and as many as 39 varieties of birds!” he says of the result.

Once considered eccentric

He recalls how he and his ilk were considered eccentric back in the late eighties when they started sounding the warning signs about environmental disasters and how it took several decades for the restoration movement to finally gain force. With the guidance of CPREEC co-founder Dr. Nanditha Krishna, his team soldiered on, determined to give back to Mother Earth in exchange for everything she had provided us. “It was a mission, so one does not give up. We’ve come full circle,” he says, referring to how students as young as 18 are taking an interest in environmental protection today and how there’s a significant demand for conservation efforts.

He also speaks of how the government allows the Project to develop the land and provides funding for its maintenance. “The amount spent is more than worthwhile, given its priceless benefits to society,” he says, elaborating that the carbon sequestering properties of these trees is of particular importance.

Despite having worked on these projects for over three decades, Dr Sudhakar is untiring in his efforts, drawing inspiration from Nature itself. He marvels at its ability to come back to life from apparent extinction and take care of itself – and all of us – simply by being given the space and time to exist undisturbed. Meanwhile, Nenmeli’s Sacred Grove Restoration Project is now a success story that inspires many others to dream of the same possibility for their own hometowns, and a living, breathing reminder, that when we put our minds to it, life as we once knew it, can begin all over again.

Photos:

Top photo: Dr. Sudhakar / The restored sacred grove of Nenmeli

Second photo: Sharon St Joan / Dr Sudhakar, holding a sculpted bird, the artwork of island young people

Third photo: Sharon St Joan / Mr. Selvapandian and Dr. Nanditha Krishna

Fourth photo: Dr. Sudhakar / The planted trees of Nenmeli, now around thirty years old

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© Forest Voices of India, 2022

How to help

CPREEC’s (CPR Environmental Education Centre) work helps restore the natural beauty and health of India’s ancient forests, while guiding young people toward careers that benefit both their own future and the world of nature.

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